Democrats Who Supported Trade Pact Invited to State Dinner

Five Democrats in Congress who support President Barack Obama's trade agenda received an invite to the White House's state dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Hill reports the five Democrat lawmakers — Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, and Gregory Meeks of New York, and Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Tom Carper of Delaware — were present at the dinner Tuesday night.

According to The Hill, two Republicans were also given an invite: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

Blumenauer and Kind were the two Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee who voted in favor of Obama's recent fast-track legislation that gave the president the power to negotiate trade deals freely. Obama is currently in talks with 11 other countries to have the United States join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement with nations in Asia and Latin America.

Abe and Obama discussed the deal in the Oval Office Tuesday. If Congress approves of the agreement, the trade pact would represent 40 percent of the global GDP.

The TPP, however, has created an interesting situation in Washington, D.C., with the majority of Democrats opposed to it and most Republicans for it. Democrats are said to be generally not in favor of trade deals out of concerns they will ship U.S. jobs overseas.

The result has caused some infighting in the Democratic Party, while top Republicans are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Obama as he presses forward.

The fast-track legislation allows Obama to negotiate the deal and present it to Congress for a vote without the legislative body having the ability to alter it in any way.

The five Democrats mentioned above have all supported the TPP in some capacity. The Hill notes that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has not officially provided her view on the TPP but who is opposed to Obama's fast-track powers, was also at the state dinner.